Tag Archives: Goals

Each year, I compile a list of goals for the coming year. One piece of advice, have a list on your phone or cork-board in your office where you write these ideas all throughout the previous year. That way, when you sit down at your computer in December, you’re not lost for ideas.

Here’s the list for 2019. Can’t wait to get started!

Inter-generational Service Projects—Encourage more adult & teen service involvement, including helping plan events.

New Writing Project—God continues to provide writing opportunities through book sales and blog articles for youth ministry, and this coming year working towards another book opportunity.

Summer Camp—One of my bucket list items—speaking at a summer camp! And I get to bring teens, what a deal!

Theology Enrichment—Review of theological textbooks and attendance of a theological/preaching conference.

Pastoral Training Course—After a decade in the ministry, I’d like to write down some lessons I’ve learned and wisdom I’ve received from others, and put this in a training course to help those new to ministry.

Teen Mentoring—While the goal of adults mentoring teens continues to be a goal, I’d like to see more teens mentoring younger students. Leadership teens will be expected to mentor younger teens, and younger teens will learn to be a mentor and example to younger kids.

International Trip—Mission Trip to Germany this summer serving alongside missionaries our church supports.

Next week, on this here blog, I will reveal the goals I have for the upcoming year of 2019. Wow, is it really going to be 2019? Where are all the flying cars? Disappointing. Anyways, it’s a great thing to have goals for the future, but it is also an important aspect of ministry to look back and evaluate. Without evaluation, there is no improvement. Looking at last years goals, it was a blessing to see many of them were able to come to fruition.

(Disclaimer: This list is not to brag about what I have done. The goal of this list is to hopefully spark some ideas for your own ministry that may give God glory and allow your ministry to grow.)

Continue Parent/Pastor Conferences—These meeting have been extra special and valuable in my pursuit of an effective partnership with parents.

Pre-Marital Counseling—After years of reading marriage books and compiling marriage articles, I was able to re-write my pre-marital counseling curriculum.

International Trip—The process was set in motion this year with plans to serve in Germany this coming summer.

World Religions Series—High School students went through a series that focused on reaching and understanding other religions.

Winter Retreat—What a special trip this was to speak to several youth groups including our own and a fun time spending a weekend with our teens.

Expansion of Elderly Ministry—A new addition of shut-in visits was added this year, and it was a tremendous blessing. We gave a special gift and each teen prayed with a senior saint.

Local Mission Trip—A unique experience of puppets in the park. The teens weren’t done there, but also were able to remodel & paint two of the main children’s ministry classrooms.

Children’s Safety Policy Improvement—Revisions to the children’s safety policy, pick up procedures established, and other security measures were put in place this year.

When we turn the page on the calendar, we often do not look back at the goals of the year before. If you’re like me, you are always looking forward. It is important to take a moment to see how well you did in the goals you set. Because what good are goals is they are set and never met. Here’s a look at how last year’s goals went, to celebrate some victories but also discuss some obstacles you may face.

New Book! – Blessing to announce my 1st book has been published and my goal is for 1,000 copies to be sold to help people fall in love with God’s Word.

Grade: C. Got about halfway to my goal this year. While that’s a little disappointing, how God has used the book is not. The book is now in the hands of missionaries across the world, youth groups across the country, and in the homes of dear families I care about. Even in defeat, that is an incredible victory. Feel free to check it out at http://www.bottomlinedevotional.com

New Curriculum Plan! – Hard to believe this is my 6th year ministering at MBC, which mean a new 6 year plan will be put in place—with the input of parents, students, and research this plan will be implemented in the fall of 2017.

Grade: A. Mission accomplished. With the help of parents, leaders, & students, I was able to produce a sparkling new 6 year curriculum to allow parents to see a plan is in place for their teenager in every year of youth ministry.

Mentoring – Teach a 2 week Mentoring series to encourage mentoring of generations within the church.

Grade: B-. Sure, the class went well and had great interaction. However, it’s been a slow process to see this culture happen within the church. Have I seen some growth? Absolutely. But i would love for more to catch the mentoring bug.

Short Term Mission Trip – Due to monthly local mission project, the 3 year cycle is now work trip, out-of-state, international trip. This year we will be traveling for our work trip.

Grade: A. What a great week. God provided for us to go work at a camp in New York. The teens worked hard, grew in their walk with Christ, and found it a positive time of unity and service.

Life After High School Series—Special speakers to speak on after high school temptations like drugs, how to witness after high school, and leader advice for the young adult years.

Grade: A. One of my all-time favorite student ministry series. You can check it out in detail here.

Public School Partnership – Continue to find ways to partner with local schools to serve them and bring the hope of Jesus Christ to students.

Grade: B-. While we have been able to have a steady presence at the high school, we have seen limited growth. And the middle school partnership has not materialized. Praying God will open doors and I’d be bold enough to walk through the opening.

Social Media Interaction – Bolster ministry social media footprint with student leadership help and more interaction on Facebook.

Grade: B+. Assigned a student as the social media coordinator, and seen an improvement in interaction. Still working on ways to make this even more interactive.

Implement G.R.O.W.T.H Chart– Encourage parents to follow chart of spiritual growth for their students and provide training and help for students to reach these spiritual goals.

Grade: B. Through parent/pastor conferences, this has come a little more alive. Still could use more improvement, but a step in the right direction.

Well, I passed 2017. Maybe not on the honor roll this year, but God certainly blessed, and I praise Him for all the victories and lessons He has taught me along the way.

Another year and more goals for the Lord to accomplish! It’s great to look forward to another year of serving in youth ministry and another year of God doing amazing things. This is just the tip of the iceberg…because I know God will do so much more. But still, it’s always good to put goals out there to aim at as the Lord directs our shots.

New Book! – Blessing to announce my 1st book has been published and my goal is for 1,000 copies to be sold to help people fall in love with God’s Word.

New Curriculum Plan! – Hard to believe this is my 6th year ministering at MBC, which mean a new 6 year plan will be put in place—with the input of parents, students, and research this plan will be implemented in the fall of 2017.

Mentoring – Teach a 2 week Mentoring series to encourage mentoring of generations within the church.

Short Term Mission Trip – Due to monthly local mission project, the 3 year cycle is now work trip, out-of-state, international trip. This year we will be traveling for our work trip.

Life After High School Series—Special speakers to speak on after high school temptations like drugs, how to witness after high school, and leader advice for the young adult years.

Public School Partnership – Continue to find ways to partner with local schools to serve them and bring the hope of Jesus Christ to students.

Social Media Interaction – Bolster ministry social media footprint with student leadership help and more interaction on Facebook.

Implement G.R.O.W.T.H Chart– Encourage parents to follow chart of spiritual growth for their students and provide training and help for students to reach these spiritual goals.

In Philippians 3:14, Paul was not talking about youth ministry goals. But I still love the phrase “press on toward the goal”. In ministry, you must do just that…”press on”. It is important to reflect on your past accomplishments, like I did last week, and grow from your mistakes and build on your successes. But, it is also vital in ministry to look ahead, plan, and seek God’s guidance for the year ahead. Below are 10 goals for the 2016 ministry year. Hopefully these will provide you with ideas and/or encouragement for the coming year.

Short Term Mission Trip – Mission trips are a part of our ministry every summer in a cycle of local, out-of-state, international, and work trips. This way, the 4 year high school experience will allow for various types of mission work. This year a trip to New York is in the works.

Better Timing – Each year I look at my schedule and there is always at least one “why did I schedule that there?”. This year I want to make a more conscious effort in the timing of events and programs. Team with parents in working out better schedules. Not all conflicts can be avoided, but why not adjust the schedule if it can be.

Family Series – I have been trying to find more ways to gather the family together in a youth ministry context. This year, I plan to teach a small series on the family with the entire family.

Co-Mission Event – Continue the annual co-mission, which is a mission conference for students. This year, there may be some changes to enhance and improve the evangelism training for the students.

Series on Fear – I read recently teens have a wide array of fears. Fear is often what keeps them from doing right and what tempts them to do wrong. Fear takes them places they don’t want to go and holds them hostage when they want to leave. Fear is something we need to talk about.

Winter Retreat – In the past, the winter has been difficult to draw up enough interest for a retreat. Part of it is timing with winter sports, weather, and life. But this year we hope will be different having a younger group.

Service – Each year we place a heavy emphasis on service and provide ample opportunity to serve in the church and in the community. This year is no different with continuous plugging in of students in church life and a community/church service project scheduled every month.

Global Emphasis – With the World in Need month continuing this year, we plan to place an emphasis on the issue of poverty across the world. We hope to encourage the students to not only pray but be a world-changer and do something about global poverty.

Apprenticeships – Along with having a youth intern this year, I want to encourage the student leaders to seek out mentoring opportunities. These will be called apprenticeships within the student leadership team, but outside the group it is simply the older students helping the younger students with life. Mentoring needs to happen both up and down…being mentored, and mentoring others.

What is the point of goals if you do not look back and see how it went? Seriously, it would be like a basketball player shooting and never looking to see if the ball made it in the hoop. You want to see how successful your attempt was at your goals, and it also provides an opportunity to praise and thank God for all He has done.

WIN Event—Continue to broaden worldview of students by teaching students the needs of the world. Also, provide an interactive learning experience where they research the world needs on their own. Grade: A. Teens were able to assemble potential charity projects, learn about needs across the world, and provide Biblical solutions to these problems.

Co-Mission Expansion—Collaborate with other youth pastors to plan a mission project or allow students to form community projects together. Grade: Incomplete. To no fault of trying, the logistics to making this happen proved to be too difficult. However, the event still turned out to be a success and provided great evangelistic training to nearly 100 students.

New Events—These new events for students include CedarMania and a trip to the Creation Museum. Grade: A. These events were well attended and well placed into the event calendar. The students really enjoyed each event and provided a great off-campus experience.

Community Reach—Continue the reach into community by working with a local school in a summer mission project. Grade: A. Community outreach has not always been a strength. However, this year God provided great opportunities such as a community garden rehab for a local school, spaghetti dinners for low-income housing, and homeless outreach to name a few.

Junior High Ministry—Continue to expand Junior High Ministry into more than Sunday School, but provide events just for Junior High. Grade: A. God has provided us with some incredible junior high directors that have made this ministry expansion possible, including our first junior high only event. The growth has been a blessing to see, and excited to see what God does in the coming year.

Informal Hangout—This is a common request from teens. Add another “Hangtime”, and pursue opportunities to hang out with teens outside of church. Grade: C. Although the goal was accomplished, it was not the best timing. We tried it in the summer, and things were just too busy. It was a lesson learned though to build in this hangtime within the events already scheduled. Once we learned this, it has been a benefit to the ministry.

Student Led Mission Trip—Provide an opportunity for leadership students to lead a mission project over the summer. Grade: A. Sometimes you need faith and risk what God puts on your heart. This was one of them. There was more trust placed into the student leaders this year for the local project, and they delivered! Very proud of how hard they worked to bless our community this past summer.

Internship Track—Begin to develop ideas for future interns such as reading material, assignments, and training. Grade: B. While it is not deserving of an incomplete, there is still room for improvement. I was able to gather some books that will be good for training myself along with books the intern will be required to read. There is also a basic plan for the responsibilities of the intern.

2015 GPA – 3.6. Is that considered honor roll? Either way, God gets the honor!

Last year, these were my 2014 ministry goals. Each year, I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve the Lord in such a wonderful ministry, church, and community. Here’s how things played out this year, and maybe these ideas will help spark ideas for you new year.

“Bible Doing” – Bible Studies are great, but so is “Bible Doing”. During our local mission trip we held a Bible study that put our Bible lessons in action. Grade: A

Wedding & Funeral Message Outlines/Scripts – This took a great deal of prep work and discipline to sit down and write wedding scripts and funeral scripts even when I didn’t have any weddings or funerals to perform. But God knew…I had the privilege of officiating my first wedding, and had the honor of doing my grandmother’s funeral. Grade: A

Music Training Class – This class in still in the planning process. However, God supplied a new student praise band of 6 members. This student-led band was a huge answer to prayer. Grade: Incomplete

Junior High Mission Trip – We held a mission project at the apartments right next door to the church. We helped landscape and clean up areas surrounding the apartments. It was a huge success building relationships with neighbors, and some even visited the church the following Sunday! Grade: A

Community Project – This project was combined with the Mission Trip described above. Grade: A

Host “Ask Your Leaders” Night – This night was a true blessing. Teens asked both informal and in-depth spiritual questions. Examples included questions about dating, afterlife, creation, and much more. Grade: B. Not every student was prepared with a question. I could have done better in allowing to think about questions for a longer period of time than just a few days

Sunday School Rehab – High School Sunday School has made some positive changes to teaching structure and discussion. And a Junior High Sunday School started this year!! Grade: A

Equip Parents/Families – Spiritual Growth Planning with several families, and expansion of Parent Training in Parent Meetings. Grade: B-. I still need to improve here. The meetings are my strength, but the informal discussions and meeting with parents outside of church walls needs to improve.

Continue Inter-generational and Discipleship Ministry– Young at Heart Lunch & Service, Combined Adult/Teen Service Projects. Grade: B+. Always room for improvement here, but was pleased with the progress.

Outreach – Easter Egg Hunt, Teen Outreach Events, & Better Visitor Discipleship/Follow-up. Grade: C. Sure there was great outreach with events and those that attend the church, but what about on the school campuses. Please pray I will have more opportunities to go on campus to share Christ.

2014 G.P.A. – 3.38.

Didn’t make the honor roll this year. Still have room for improvement. But I will say this, God truly blessed. I was able to perform a wedding for my sister-in-law, honor my grandmother in her homegoing, be part of two teens accepting Christ, serve alongside teens in numerous service projects in the church and community, and saw some incredible growth in teens and their parents. Thank you Lord for all you did in 2014. To God be the glory.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, I thank you. Also, you maybe remember the goals I set for the 2013 ministry year. Well, it is always a good idea to look back and see how we did on each of those goals. Below are the 10 goals and the evaluation grade.

A-. During the course of the year, we provided multiple opportunities for students to participate and lead. In fact, we set aside one youth group night per month for the students to lead the entire night – from attendance to set up! Would have been an A, but without having everyone involved, it wasn’t quite accomplished. Something to shoot for, 100% involvement!

B+. Much better this year. Held a parenting seminar, provided youth culture updates each week regularly, and hosted 3 parent meetings. Improvement needed in the area of parent involvement in activities (more than just providing snacks)

Family Life Planning Begin offering life planning for student ministry parents.

A. My goal was to begin this, and I have been able to begin this with several families. Looking forward to more of this in 2014.

Easter Outreach Community Easter Egg Hunt planned by leadership students

A. Praise the Lord for how well this went. I could not have asked for better leadership by the students, and they deserve an A. Over 125 kids came to our first student-led outreach!

Youth Pastor Network Launch a network in SW Columbus.

B. Sure, I was able to launch the network. But due to schedule conflicts and limited participation, the group was typically only 2 or 3 guys. Still, it’s a start!

Public School Ministry Still working on ways to enter public schools to share Jesus.

B-. Was able to go to school and speak to Special Education department and put my name in for help with counseling. Other than that, still needs work. Possibly working on doing an ant-bullying program for the coming year.

B. Some improvement here of more intentional equipping in leader meetings, discussing ways to mentor/disciple. Need to broaden scope of training.

Better Documentation of MSM I’m talking pictures/video.

B-. Doing a better job with this, trying to post pictures and video when possible. Still working on getting a MSM video together for the website, which would drastically improve this evaluation grade.

WIN Event World in Need Event to promote spiritual and physical needs globally

A. One of my favorite events of the year. Liked it so much, going to do it again this coming year. What an eye-opening, worldview forming event this was. Well worth the time and effort.

Inter-generational Church Promote events and ways to bridge generations in church, church programs, church events.

B. Could definitely use improvement, but was able to pull off the best inter-generational event in my ministry career. Did a “speed-dating” type event, connecting the older & younger generation together. Still hearing about it even 4 months later!